The Supreme Court judgement that affirmed the election of Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State has continued to generate reactions owing to the fact that several National Assembly and House of Assembly lawmakers in the state suffered has been termed as miscarriage of justice at the Court of Appeal.
It would be recalled that a five-member panel of the apex court led by Justice Emmanuel Agim had on Friday, 12 January 2024, reversed the decision of the appellate court for being perverse because the issue of the primary election that produced Mutfwang was outside the jurisdiction of the lower court.
The apex court pointed out that the validity of nomination and sponsorship was not a valid ground to void an election.
It held that the Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction to entertain the matter, besides the fact that the issue of sponsorship had elapsed long ago, adding that the petitioners, not being members of the PDP, had no locus to challenge the party’s primary election.
On the issue of whether the order of the Plateau State High Court could affect the National Executive Committee (NEC), the apex court held that the appellate court was wrong in holding that the order affected the NEC.
Justice Agim further stated that the issue of primary was an internal matter of political parties in which both the Tribunal and Court of Appeal lacked jurisdiction.
He also pointed out that contrary to the claim of the petitioners and the judgement of the appellate court, the order of the Plateau High Court was not disobeyed by the PDP as evidence showed that a fresh primary was conducted.
He warned the legal profession to wake up or else it would render itself irrelevant to the society.
The presiding Justice, John Okoro, also lamented that a lot of people have suffered because of the wrongful judgements of the appellate court which had sacked several legislators who won elections under the platform of the PDP.
In her submission, Justice Helen Ogunwumiju also berated the appellate court for going into the issue of nomination and sponsorship despite several decisions of the apex court to the effect that another political party cannot challenge the primary election of another.
The Court of Appeal erred
The Supreme Court clearly stated that the appellate court erred in its judgement that previously sacked the governor and the PDP lawmakers. This has, expectedly, generated a debate across the country on what could be the way forward in situations like this.
Some political analysts and enthusiasts have called for the review of the Appeal Court judgement that sacked the PDP lawmakers since the Supreme Court has said otherwise. They also urged the lawmakers that were affected by the decision of the Court of Appeal to file a case in court and test the validity of their case in court.
Any way out for sacked lawmakers?
In his reaction, the former Chairman of the NHRC, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, called on the President of the Court of Appeal, Justice Monica Dongban-Mensem, to resign her position.
He described the case of Plateau State as extraordinary and a wilful miscarriage of justice which requires extraordinary measures.
Odinkalu accused the President of the Court of Appeal of being either totally irresponsible or comprehensively corrupt, adding that she had no place in a credible judiciary.
On whether the affected candidates should demand a judicial review, he said: “Well, judicial review, strictly speaking, is a term of art that is inapplicable in this case. It applies to the review of administrative action or actions of lower courts. You don’t have judicial review of the decision of a final court which the Court of Appeal is in parliamentary election disputes.
“However, it is possible for the court to review its own decision in exceptional cases. The scale of the wilful miscarriage in Plateau State is extraordinary. It calls for extraordinary measures. I personally believe that the current President of the Court of Appeal who is from Plateau State is complicit in the injustice. She comes from the same LGA – Shendam – as the immediate past governor whom they have now installed as Senator for Plateau Central. I would go as far as to say she has been privy to everything that happened in these Court of Appeal violations.
“But there is a way for her to show she is not: She can constitute a different panel of the Court of Appeal to hear applications for review of the decisions. That is the least she can do.”
Commenting on the issue, a Professor of Constitutional Law, Edoba Omoregie (SAN), who described the Court of Appeal’s judgement as judicial rascality, said the appellate court was final and could not be reversed.
According to him, if the Court of Appeal had not displayed “judicial rascality”, which manifested in its unacceptable failure to follow previous Supreme Court decisions, the victories of those lawmakers would not have been nullified.
“The Court of Appeal decision cannot be reversed, unfortunately. This is because the court is the final forum in such matters,” Omoregie said.
“The bigger issue raised by the entire scenario relates to the problem of judicial rascality being displayed by the Court of Appeal and the lower courts or tribunals which manifest in their unacceptable failure to follow previous Supreme Court decisions such as in Jegede v. APC. Lower courts are obliged to follow previous decisions of the Supreme Court in similar circumstances. In the particular issue at stake, those previous decisions had made it categorically clear that matters of the nomination of candidates by political parties are internal affairs of political parties outside the concern of other political parties.
“The only remedy open now is for the legislature to consider legislative action to right the wrong. This can only be by fresh legislation which will be effective in the next election cycle,” he added.
On his part, a former Chairman of the Abuja Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mr. Moses Ebute (SAN), while also sympathising with the sacked lawmakers, stated that the Court of Appeal “being a final court, its decision cannot be appealed against”.
“It is final and binding not minding the latest decision of the Supreme Court in the governorship appeal in respect of Plateau State,” Ebute said.
He observed that the latest decision of the apex court was consistent with all of its earlier or previous decisions on who has the locus standi to challenge the outcome of a party primary or nomination of a candidate of a political party.
“Unfortunately, the Court of Appeal defiantly refused to follow the decision of the Supreme Court and thereby visited grave injustice on other PDP candidates involved in national and state legislative houses election in Plateau State,” Ebute said.
“More worrisome, surprising and embarrassing is the fact that the same Court of Appeal had held and pronounced in the Presidential Election Petitions that whoever is not a member of a political party or is not an aspirant in the primary election of a political party, cannot challenge the nomination of a candidate of another party. How and why it didn’t follow its own decision leaves much to be desired.
“In a plethora of judicial authorities, the Supreme Court had held that a refusal to follow its decision as the apex court of the land on similar issues by a lower court amounted to judicial rascality. I say no more,” he said.
But for Mr. Ahmed Raji (SAN), the fate of the Plateau lawmakers is similar to a situation where the law under which a person is convicted is subsequently pronounced unconstitutional.
“Will the convict continue to remain in jail or will he be set free? There are two schools of thought on the issue. Perhaps the affected parties should consult widely on the pronouncements of my noble Lord Okoro JSC against the finality of the Court of Appeal’s judgment in the state and National Assembly seats,” he said.
Speaker disowns 16 APC members
Meanwhile, Speaker of Plateau State House of Assembly, Gabriel Dewan, said he’s only recognizing eight members of the House, leaving the fate of 16 APC members hanging in the balance.
Dewan, the only member of the Young Peoples Party (YPP), was elected speaker in the wake of the sack of the 16 PDP lawmakers.
Speaking to newsmen in Jos, Dewan said that the pronouncement of the Supreme Court, which is the highest court of the land, had cancelled the earlier position of the lower court, stressing that only lawmakers “are recognised as members in the assembly”.
He said that as a Speaker, he is a leader of all irrespective of political party and he would carry everybody along in his leadership despite coming from the opposition and a minority party.
According to him, the 16 lawmakers who were affirmed by the Court of Appeal would not be recognised for now since the apex court was emphatic that the judgement of the Appeal Court was faulty and an abuse of court processes. Moreover, he said, the 16 PDP lawmakers who were earlier sacked had appealed for the determination of the Supreme Court judgement and are calling for their judgement and that of the National Assembly members to be upturned by the highest court of the land.
The Appeal Court had previously sacked 16 members elected under the PDP platform on the premise that the party had no structure as at the time they were nominated as candidates and, therefore, lacked the legitimacy to be sponsored by the party.
The court had asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to withdraw the certificates of return of the sacked lawmakers and issue them to the APC members. The electoral body had subsequently issued the APC members with Certificates of Return.
Sacked PDP lawmakers vow to resume at plenary
Meanwhile, there are indications of a fresh crisis in Plateau State House of Assembly following claims by sacked members of the PDP and yet-to-be inaugurated members of the APC that they would attend plenary session upon the resumption of legislative duties after the long recess.
Addressing journalists in Jos, the state capital, the sacked PDP members through the former Majority Leader, Ishaku Maren, posited that the Supreme Court verdict which affirmed Governor Mutfwang as the duly elected governor of the state should also be applicable to the state lawmakers that were sacked by the appellate court.
However, APC members, in reaction to the intent of PDP members to resume plenary session, described the action as insensitive to the rule of law and invitation to anarchy.
